• Tap, tap, tap the sound of feet hitting the flag stones running as fast they can.
    It was dark; I didn’t understand what was happening, ma and pa were panting beside me, we had been running for a while now. I was confused and tired my six year old legs were shaking and cold. I was wearing my night dress that only went to my knees.
    We were running threw back alleys, dim lights coming from the back doors helping us guide are way. Pa kept pushing me on saying come, come Melcia, you must run. I tripped over a flag stone, pa stopped to pick me up. we were panting and stuck at a dead end.
    “What do we do Usagi, what do we do, we are trapped?” ma asked pa.
    “I…I” pas voice broke, “I don’t know!”
    Ma started pulling me the other way, but pa stopped her, he grabbed me and led me to the garbage can. You must get inside Melcia, please. Pa said this in such a sad voice I just nodded trying not to cry. He lifted me up pulling the lid of the trash can off. Pa put me in and patted my head with his big hands. That very moment I could see just how old he was, time had taken a toll on him. His eyes had grayed over the years and big wrinkles had formed on his forehead. Just looking at him broke my heart.
    Pa closed the lid over me saying nothing. I was left in the darkness alone. I heard pa’s footsteps, ma was crying, pa whispered to her. There were footsteps coming form the other direction then a big thud. Ma started to mumble and cry at the same time.
    “Please, please, spare us sir, pa said.
    it was quite even even ma stopped crying, there was a click, then a deep voice of a man came into the silence. The voice was menacing, and yet it did not frighten me, the voice rung in my ears like a beautiful lullaby, but what the voice sad made a bigger impact.
    “Where is the kid?”
    “W...Wha...what child” pa stammered
    There was the sound of a foot taping the ground, and a grunt. “I don’t have time to play around, tell me where she is and I may think about sparing your life.”
    She, who’s she, is he talking about me? What’s going on? Pa, ma what’s going on?
    “We do not have the child you have the wrong people sir!”
    “Hum...no I have the right people I can sense the kid around here. Now are you going to tell me where the kid is or are you just going to dig your own grave?”
    There was a long silence then there was the sound a death. It was loud, so loud it rung my ears and the can I was in. I could feel the vibrations go through my skin and ring my veins and blood. It didn’t hurt to hear the sound, the sound sounded just like the man with the beautiful voice; it was a sound I wished I could be around the rest of my life, along with that man.


    “Cat, get in the game come on you can do better than that!”
    “Oh shut it..I’ve been at this for three hours. All you have been doing is sitting and eating.”
    “Ha ha. Well I have already done all my training so what’s the point.”
    I drowned out the nagging and set my mind on the twenty targets in front of me. Closing my eyes I made a graph in my head of each target, and each obstacle ahead of me. I opened eyed and started my hunt. Shooting each target head on I dropped to the ground proud of myself.
    “What was my time Harvey, was it any good?”
    “That course took you five seconds. Not bad we can stop your training for today, okay.”
    It had been eleven years since I came to live with my master and the rest of the family, well I consider them family, we all live underground in a secret hide out, I don’t know why it’s a secret but I do know that all the people that work for the company here are all assassin. This underground corp. is where we train and work to become the best. There are only a few who join every couple years but most ends up getting killed right when they leave on their first mission. I have been training for the past eleven years nonstop, I don’t know why but I love training, I love shooting my gun hearing the sound of the bullet leaving flying through the air. Hearing my gun is something I know I will hear all my life.
    “Hey Cat come on, keep up with me, Mr. Blalock will be here soon. He’ll want to see you its been a month since you last saw him.” Harvey yelled threw the hallway.
    He was right it had been a month since I last saw master, the head of the company had sent master out with many assignments, master said it would only take a week or two but it had already been four weeks now, I was starting to worry he never took this long on any assignment. Thinking of master made me want to see him even more then I already do so I started running. I passed Harvey but I kept running. Running through the hallway that was just like a maze, I went up the stairs to the room where I would greet master and congratulate him on his good work.
    I stopped in the middle of the dark and empty room. I was barely breathing hard, but when Harvey came up behind me he was leaning on the wall gasping for breath. He was laughing blabbering about how he needs to get into shape. I guess it was true about what he was saying, Harvey was an older man in his early thirty’s and had a bit of a belly but it fit his image. As I was passing the room silently, we heard footsteps coming to the door opposite of us.

    We heard some of the locks on the other side of the door unbolt, there was a loud sound of the door opening. Blinding lights flashed through the opening door, whipping my arm to cover my eyes I gave myself a second to adjust, looking up I saw my master walking through the door behind him was the rest of the committee Mrs. Blavar stood head of the committee. She held her head high, sparks flew off her blue eyes and her long curly hair wiped the air behind her. To me she was the most beautiful person I have met.
    The guards closed and bolted the doors when they were threw the door. Master came over to me in the darkness and rustiled my hair with his big hands. “Welcome home master” I said with a big grin on my face. “I hope you had no trouble with your work?”
    “It good to be back, Melcia”
    “Earl we best be going. We got some things to talk about, it will only take a couple of hours.” Mrs. Blavar said.
    Master kept his hand on my head pausing. He was looking down at my face with the clearest of eyes; around his mouth were long frown lines. He looked sad for some reason. Why was he sad? Taking his eyes off me he looked look at Harvey.
    “Harvey, I assume you took good care of Melcia for me; she didn’t give you a pain did she?”
    “No, she was good, trained like no other.”
    Master turned around and looked up at Mrs. Blavar, “I’m going to rest and have some food. I’ll come as soon as I’m done, Mrs. Etta.”
    She looked like she was going to say something but she shut her mouth and waited for the door to open. Master just looked back at her with a sour look. I watched them in amazement. When Mrs. Blavar was threw the door master turned around and motioned me to fallow. Dazed I fallowed, tired from my day of training.
    Masters room was much bigger than mine. It was a bedroom/kitchen; we never went to the café where everyone else went to. Master was cooking some eggs and worming milk, it was my favorite meal, runny eggs and nice warm milk. I was sitting in one of the two chairs at the table watching him make food. When Harvey is eating with us he says its feels weird because we don’t even say one word, but to me it’s normal. He brought the food over to the table with two plates, he looked very serious, and his face looked as if it had been molded from clay.
    Breakings are normal silence I asked “what’s wrong did something happen while you were out?”
    “Hum.” He look like he had something on his mind, his eyes were glassed over with his thoughts. ”what are you talking about I’m fine just tired.”


    I looked at him with my mouth full of eggs, I was worried. I knew he wasn’t telling me something, not only that I had this sick feeling in my stomach like something bad was about to happen. What was he hiding, is it important?
    After eating I cleaned the dishes while he slept. When I was done I left for my room hoping to get in a hour or two of sleep. It took me a bit to fall asleep, I just kept think of master and what he was hiding. Not only that, why did Mrs. Blavar need master. Was he in trouble? No, he couldn’t be master is probley more respected then the committee is. Not only that, master is respectful to everyone no matter who that person is. An hour later I woke to master waking me up.
    “What is it, is something wrong?”
    “No I just need you to come with me for a little bit okay.” Master said “get dressed and come with me.”
    Master coming to my room was out of the blue. I had gotten dressed and fallowed master. I didn’t know where we were going. We passed all the halls when we went through a door I had never seen before, it got very dark and I couldn’t see so I grabbed onto masters jacket. Master opened another door and we were in a large room that was dimly lit. I had never been in this place I had a weird feeling to it. I didn’t like it one bit.
    “Come, they are waiting.”
    “What who are waiting, what are you talking about?”
    “Mr. Blalock, welcome we have been waiting restlessly.”
    The lights brightened, and in front on a large platform was the whole committee. Everyone even Mrs. Blavar was there. “Umm...Master what is this, what’s going on?” he didn’t turn around to analogue what I had said.
    “Why did you bring her, we only asked for you?” one of the people said.
    “I brought her cause I wanted to bring her; I don’t need a reason behind it.”
    “Melcia, sweaty” said Mrs. Blavar said “this isn’t a place for children can you please leave us.”
    It may seem childish but what she said offended me. I am not a child; I’m 17, a grown woman. And for her to ask me to leave when my master brought me here was just rude.
    “I’m not a child” I said quietly
    Masters lips turned up into a wicked grin. A grin he only shows when he is happy.
    “she can stay ill need her here for what I’m going to say.” Master said

    “Fine she can stay and here of what you where up to while gone for the whole month.” Said a committee member
    “Mr. Blalock while you were gone for the month you duties were to kill three men. On your day coming back we found you had not completed you mission. You did not kill nor did you visit these men. Do you have an explanation to why you did not follow the rules and kill them?” said another
    “I have no reason”
    “so you went agents what we ordered for no reason.”
    “No I wouldnt say that.”
    “Then why!”
    “Because I don’t want to kill anymore.”
    There was silence in the room. Masters face was like stone. I could see what he said was the truth, and he was happy with it.
    “You dare go agents us, I don’t care how liked you are we the committee can bring you down, you do realize that.”
    “Hum, I don’t care I have decided I will not work for you anymore. I’m leaving.”
    “You can’t just leave you have no other place to go no one in the outside world will accept you.”
    I stared up at master shocked; my breath was chough in my throat, my heart skipped a beat probably. What was he talking about, he’s leaving?